Re: Membership dues [ was: Re: Advisory Board Letter ]

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

Maciej Stachowiak <mjs@eazel.com> writes: 
> I am not sure about that. One concern that has been raised about
> getting money from corporations is that we might be dependent on
> it. But as it is, we are even more dependent on it - we need to ask
> one company or another to foot the bill _each and every time_ we want
> to do something that requires money. I think asking once a year is
> better than asking each time we want to do something.
>

The point I'm making is that right now we don't feel we _need_ to do
anything that requires (much) money. If we had recurring expenses such
as a physical office, permanent employees, etc. then we would be
dependent on money for the survival of the foundation, in essence.
Right now we have to ask, but if the need is really serious, someone
will certainly say yes, and if it isn't, there is no major loss if
they say no. Because there is no institution that requires money, if
people won't give it to us we just sort of shrug and say "whatever you
want to do."

> I think we might end up with a bunch of unforseen expenses.

Like what? We could make up expenses, but we haven't had any in the
last few years, why are they going to appear now?

That's what I mean by inventing ways to spend money just because you
have it.

>  As Bart suggested, if we end up with too much money lying around we
> can donate it to the FSF or some other worthy cause.
> 

I'm very uncomfortable paying a fee to someone "because we might need
it, and we'll give it away if we don't" - I want to see a definite
benefit I'll get from paying the fee. If we can fly hackers to GUADEC,
go to shows, have servers, etc. without any fee, what's the point?

I think it comes down to what Bart mentioned, "because we can, we
might as well," and that sounds wrong to me.

Just a personal bias. We may as well move forward with the $10k
compromise for now, assuming everyone is willing to pay it. Though $5k
would be even better. ;-)

Havoc